Winning Back Customers In the Houston Metro area

And by “best”, I mean that not only did we get to serve a bunch of great Houston Metro clients, but we were able to help a lot of tax “issues” get resolved, and made a lot of clients happy.

But one thing in particular made me feel a little warmer on the inside — and that is when a former client (who had drifted away to other providers in recent years) came walking back through the proverbial door.

It happened a few times, and it wasn’t entirely by accident.

I thought it worth sharing with you a little bit more about this. It might be a great strategy for YOUR Houston Metro business…

Winning Back Customers In the Houston Metro area“Remember the two benefits of failure. First, if you do fail, you learn what doesn’t work; and second, the failure gives you the opportunity to try a new approach.” – Roger Von Oech

Bar none, the most important asset in your Houston Metro business is your client list. I’ll paraphrase Andrew Carnegie who said, in effect: “If you take away all of my wealth, my products, my inventory, my equipment, my staff, in fact, virtually all assets and resources — but leave me my customer lists, I will have everything else back, in short order.”

He’s 100% correct. And, in the past, I have urged you to take the steps to ensure you are on top of this list for your Houston Metro business.

There are three segments you should address as we head into summer:

1) Existing ClientsThis seems obvious, but frankly it can be one of the most under-utilized — and yet most profitable — groups of customers or clients to pursue.

2) “Lost” ClientsMore about these in a minute.

3) Targeted Prospects/New ClientsThis is the “sexy” segment … but in my opinion, established business owners spend far too much energy and resources going after this group.

I’d like to posit a thought to you: most of your “lost” clients didn’t leave because you did something wrong. As a Houston Metro business owner, it’s easy to take things personally, and believe that when you lose a customer or client, you really messed something up.

Actually, studies indicate the opposite is true: it’s normally something happening in their life or business, not what your business did or didn’t do.

So going back to this list with a simple appeal for their business, to “give you another shot”, is actually a powerful strategy for recapturing business. Winning back customers can be easy. Simply asking for them to return is sure to bring a boatload of “lost” clients back.

Everybody loves being wanted.

But most Houston Metro businesses make the mistake of either 1) not even trying to go back after former clients or customers, or 2) simply “keeping them on the list” for regular mailings.

Actually what’s most effective is when you acknowledge that the client or customer hasn’t done business with you recently–and you’d like to incentivize them to give you a shot again. It acknowledges that there is a relationship in play, and that the customer/client isn’t just a number to you.

Try it in the next few weeks … see what happens, and send me a note of thanks when you do. 🙂

Feel very free to forward this article to a Houston Metro business associate or client you know who could benefit from our assistance — or simply send them our way? While these particular articles usually relate to business strategy, as you know, we specialize in tax preparation and planning forHouston Metrofamilies and business owners. And we always make room for referrals from trusted sources like you.